Our house is on a septic system and has its own well, something entirely new to this city girl.

I’ve been told by a plumber that it’s fine to throw toxic cleaning products down the drain, but I think of all the cute creatures around here (like this bull moose we saw, just down the road), and I shudder at the thought of poisoning their environment.

I’ve always tried to make my own cleaning products using vinegar, lemon juice and water, and only rely on the hard stuff occasionally, when things are really dirty.

But making homemade laundry soap was something I’d never considered until I came across this terrific Suddenly Frugal blog. It seemed hippy dippy, and I wasn’t sure it would work. But it was so cheap to make I thought I’d at least give it a try.

This is all you need to make your own Homemade Laundry Soap:

• Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
• 20 Mule Team Borax
• Bar of Fels-Naptha Soap

It’s not easy to find these standard ingredients. These proven cleaners of yesteryear are being shoved onto the bottom aisles at the grocery store. HelMart doesn’t carry them (figures), but King Soopers here in Colorado (a Kroger store) does carry all three.

The recipe is so simple it’s ridiculous:

1. Get a large bucket or tote.
2. Combine 2 cups washing soda and 2 cups Borax.
3. Grate 1 bar of Fels Naptha Soap
4. Mix into powder
5. Measure 1/4 cup per load.

Wear a dust mask when mixing, or be prepared to inhale a lot of powder. Ick.

It took me maybe 10 minutes to do all of this, and one batch lasts about 4 weeks for us (I only do wash once a week). Total cost of purchasing the ingredients was, $10.84, about the same as a box of Tide, and I’m going to get at least 3 months out of the ingredients (I bought 3 bars of soap). Don’t hold me to that though; I’m innumerate.

DIY Laundry Soap really does work! There’s a reason this stuff has been around forever. But if you try it, keep these tips in mind:

• Let your washer fill up at least halfway with water, to dillute the powder.
• You won’t see bubbles in the water, but bubbles aren’t what cleans your clothes, detergent does.
• For stains, try spot cleaning first by rubbing a bar of Fels Naptha on the stain.
• There are recipes for liquid laundry soap out there, but they look like a pain, and they’re messy to make. I like this recipe the best.

I would love to keep making this laundry soap while we’re on the road this winter, but I’m not sure I’ll have the space in the RV to store the ingredients. Time will tell when I get to packing again in a few weeks. That’ll be fun.

Earlier this year, Dr. Dressler came out with his first e-book, the Dog Cancer Survival Guide. While not specific to bone cancers that affect many of us, this is a 300 page PDF filled with information that presents the latest findings in suspected causes of cancer, treatment options, nutrition and supplements, and kindhearted advice to help you stay strong throughout it all.

We recommend this book because it’s as much a resource guide as it is a mental health guide for coping with canine cancer cancer. Using the old adage “You must put on your own oxygen mask first,” Dr. Dressler explains why your mental health is mission critical.

“”You must get into a state of mind where you can be most effective as your dog’s primary caregiver. You have some big decisions to make, and they require a clear mind. Your ability to focus and be totally available to your dog — who really needs you — is your number one job.”

In a step-by-step, straightforward manner targeted at the layperson who has just learned that their dog has cancer, he turns complex information into easy summaries the layperson can understand and utilize, such as: what are some suspected causes of cancer, questions to ask your vet, what a pathologist’s report is and why you need a copy, financing treatment and more. You’ll learn basic cancer terms, causes, and why your dog’s immune system is his own best defense.

Because the book is for anyone coping with canine cancer, it covers eight major types of cancers in detail. Later, you’ll learn how Dr. Dressler’s “Full Spectrum Cancer Care Plan” can be tailored specifically to your dog’s health status. You’ll learn what strategies (from chemotherapy to natural medicine) and techniques have scientific studies that support their effectiveness, and the pros and cons of each.

Another thing we liked about the Dog Cancer Survival Guide is, unlike a lot of traditional veterinarians, Dr. Dressler doesn’t ignore  alternative nutrition therapies as a way to combat cancer. He understands that what you feed your dog during his battle with cancer is just as important as what kind of surgery you decide  to have performed. You’ll learn about foods and supplements that can enhance treatments and improve your dog’s quality of life, and how to feed them to your dog.

This book will also help you manage the side effects of most conventional and alternative medicine treatments for canine cancer (did you know you can give your dog fresh ginger to manage nausea?). You’ll learn how to evaluate your dog’s quality of life, and how to figure out when the time is right to set aside cancer weapons and begin hospice care for your beloved companion.

We wholeheartedly endorse Dr. Dressler’s e-book because it’s one of the few we’ve found that addresses all aspects of ways in which you can battle the evil monster called canine cancer. But a word of warning: Dr. Dressler is an eloquent writer. The book’s last chapter, “If Your Dog Could Speak, This is What She Would Say to You,” is a real tearjerker:

“And if their short lives are to be useful, it is to remind us of a few simple facts that we humans forget pretty easily.

‘We are alive. We are breathing. We are here. We are smelling and tasting and the breeze feels good. We are holding each other and we like each other. We play and walk and run. This is good. You are good.”

Be sure to subscribe to our new Tripawds Downloads blog for more e-book reviews and updates about other downloadable resources we find! Have you started your Tripawds Blog yet?

Even after two years of living on the road, Jamie Jensen’s book Road Trip USA: Cross Country Adventures on America’s Two Lane Highways has been helping us uncover countless hidden gems along the way. With our limited bookshelf space in the rig, this is one book that we’ll never let go of.

See What’s Really Out There

The newest edition of Road Trip USA has just been released, along with two pocket guides – Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway Guide and Road Trip USA Route 66 Guide. If you’re like us, and drive the blue highways instead interstates, while seeking local Mom and Pop cafes and sticking it to Starbucks, you need these books.

Jamie Jensen’s books suggest 11 distinct road trips bisecting the U.S. From north to south, or east to west, the classic routes include The Pacific Coast Highway, Route 66, the Great River Road, and the Appalachian Trail. Detailed maps and clear directions to plenty of points of interest provide for unlimited day trips and side excursions. You’ll also find accurate contact information for lodging, car rental companies, state tourism boards, and road condition numbers.

The best part of Jamie’s books are their emphasis on finding the quirkier, offbeat attractions and towns across America. While there’s enough useful information about major cities and attractions to give you a head start on your research, Road Trip Nation will help you plan more unusual itineraries.

Plan Your Next Offbeat Adventure

The Atomic Tourist, for instance, might select a route from the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico, to the Titan Missile Museum in San Xavier, AZ, to Arco, Idaho, home of the remains of the Experimental Breeder Reactor Number One.

Music lovers will enjoy discovering blues festivals in the south, and cowboy gatherings in the West.

Teetotalling travelers can find their way from the wineries of Westfield, NY to Napa, CA, to the world’s biggest six pack in Lacrosse, WI. They’ll also learn to steer clear of Shamrock Texas on St. Patrick’s Day, even though they could kiss an actual piece of the Blarney Stone in that town’s Elmore Park. Why stay away? Because Shamrock is a dry town.

Road Trip USA identifies attractions one might easily otherwise miss, like the birthplace (and burial site) of On the Road author Jack Kerouac, just 20 miles off highway 2 in Lowell, MA. And how else would you know where the geographical center of North America is? (the answer: Rugby, ND). You’ll discover things like just how many places in the U.S. claim to be the home of Paul Bunyan. Statues of the Lumberjack giant can be found from Maine to Minnesota to our old stomping grounds of Northern California.

It’s also a useful tool that teaches you how to properly pronounce town names before you arrive and look like a tourist. Learn how Sequim, WA is really annunciated (“Skwim”), or Cairo, IL (Ki-Ro).

The only problem with Road Trip USA is that there is so much information, if you forget to consult it before planning your itinerary, you could miss important landmarks like we have. For instance, we passed by the World Largest Frying Pan in Long Beach, WA, and in that same trip, drove right through Curt Cobain’s hometown of Abereen, WA (may he rest in peace!) without even knowing it until later when flipping through the book.

Try Jamie’s Handy Pocket Guides for Short Trips

Road Trip USA’s Pacific Coast Highway Guide and the Road Trip USA Route 66 Guide are a neat addition to Jamie’s encyclopedia of quirky attractions. They’re jam packed with useful information, and you won’t have to lug around the biblical-sized Road Trip USA book if you’re just traveling within those geographic areas.

As West Coast natives, we’ve frequented a lot of his selections in the Pacific Coast Highway Guide, and have to say that his descriptions are accurate, truthful and unbiased.

We wish we had these books when we lived on the West Coast, as Jamie reveals stuff about places we’ve been to but were oblivious to some local finds, like the Olympic Game Farm in Washington. We thought it was a repulsive canned hunt farm, but it turns out to be a home to retired Hollywood animal actors!

The Route 66 Guide is also handy for anyone traveling near that famous route. You don’t have to follow it exactly, as Jamie offers lots of tips and ideas for attractions that are within a reasonable distance of the original highway. We especially enjoyed how he lists local indie radio stations for drivers to listen to, which can give you a taste of local flavor far better than any syndicated radio station can.

So turn off that satellite radio, drive off the interstates and onto the blue highways, and go find the real spirit of America, because believe it or not, it is alive and well. You just have to look harder these days to find it. But first, pick up your copy of Road Trip USA today.

Stay tuned for a guest post from Jamie, about ways you can save money on the road while traveling . . .

Coming soon: Pay-to-Play Internet Plans

It’s hard to believe we’ve been on the road for two years now. What started out as a one-year road trip has morphed into a lifestyle, mostly because of our ability to stay connected with the world through our satellite internet connection.

But it’s not perfect. We’ve had a few gripes, especially lately, when something on our network was calling out to the Internet, and we couldn’t diagnose the problem. We had a mystery virus eating up our bandwidth, and subjecting us to a “Fair Access Policy”, that our ISP, HugesNet, inflicts on subscribers.

For satellite users, the HughesNet Fair Access Policy (FAP) states that:

Hughes has established a download threshold for each of the HughesNet service plans that is well above the typical usage rates. Subscribers who exceed that threshold will experience reduced download speeds for approximately 24 hours.

In the satellite internet world, this situation is known as “getting FAPed.” Lots of things can set it off. Watch a movie online? FAP! Videoconference on Skype for too long? FAP! You don’t get charged a fee, but it’s a horribly painful affliction, giving you speeds akin to dial-up for 24 hours from the time you exceeded your limit.

Until now, FAP policies and bandwidth limitations like this have only been the problem of satellite users and others who rely on connectivity through wireless internet “air cards” provided by their cell phone company. But now, DSL and cable subscribers will start to feel the pain of “bandwidth caps” too.

The San Antonio Express-News reported on April 2, 2009, that Time Warner cable has tapped San Antonio (TX) as one of its first markets to charge varying rates depending on how much data you use, instead of a flat fee.

Time Warner claims that 5 percent of its customers use up to 50 percent of their total bandwidth. They claim they are looking out for the Honest Joes and Janes who don’t hog up the pipeline by frivolously using it for downloading movies or gaming. The company plans to implement this new pricing structure in Austin, Greensboro, North Carolina, and Rochester, New York.

AT&T isn’t far behind. Subscribers in Humboldt should also be on the lookout for the same kind of new pay-to-play system. Late last year, the company began testing bandwidth caps of 60 – 150 gigabytes per month in Reno, Nevada. Other providers following suit include Comcast and Charter Communications.

Users do get a warning if they approach their limit. But once they do, are charged anywhere from $1 per gigabyte over the cap, up to an extra $20 a month on their bills.

The implications of bandwidth caps are profound, and in this economic climate, will have far reaching consequences on businesses as well as individual users.

This pay-to-play scheme by communications giants is nothing new. Other providers have attempted policies like this before. Back in 1986, Ma Bell tried to get rid of its longstanding flat rate charge. They began charging users in Rochester, New York, fees based on how many phone calls they made or how far they were located from the exchange box.

But guess what? Consumers revolted, some even forming their own cooperatives to provide alternative services. Ma Bell eventually threw in the towel when enough of its users switched to the newly formed Rochester phone company.

Over 100 years later, it’s happening again, and we still can’t afford to let our access to the world be at the mercy of these companies. I encourage you to help the Humboldt tech community spread the word about this issue, by bringing it up for discussion with the Redwood Technology Consortium membership base. You can also read about the actions that consumers are taking, by visiting StopTheCap.com, or UsageCaps.com.

As for my satellite internet connection, next time we get FAPed, I guess that as long as we aren’t being charged extra, I won’t scream as loudly as I used to.

# # # #

Copyright 2009, Eureka Times Standard Newspaper.The print edition of this article first appeared in the 4/30/09 edition of the Times Standard.

Last year we missed the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in the West Texas town of Alpine, by just one week. This year, we hightailed it back in time.

The YouTube playlist below includes six movies Jim made from all the footage I shot of performers including Doris Daley, Jeff Gore, Dale and Brittany Burson, Sam Noble and Gail Steiger;

At 23 years and going strong, the Alpine Cowboy Poetry Gathering is the second oldest in America, just one year behind the much larger Elko, Nevada festival. I’ve always wanted to make it to Elko, but it takes place in January, and being in an RV during Elko’s frozen winter isn’t my idea of a good time. Guess that makes me a real city slicker.

Alpine’s vaqueros though, they know when, and how, to hold a festival for wimps like me. While much smaller than Elko’s, Alpine’s is better in my book. The weather’s awesome, the overall price of attending is more affordable, the performers are accessible, and to me, the atmosphere feels a lot more authentic than Elko, which isn’t the nicest town in the world.

The only bummer is that the poetry and music sessions are held on a college campus, and we wish they would’ve had some in bars or in a campfire setting.

Jim isn’t a huge fan of cowboy poetry like I am, but he patiently endured the festival so he could get a good dinner or two out of it (and he did!).

We both fell in love with the town of Alpine itself. It’s small but not too small, real estate is affordable, and the high desert scenery can’t be beat. We plan on heading back there to look for our winter Texas property in the fall.

Among RVers, no other camping area evokes such intense reactions as Slab City. People either love it, or hate it. There is no gray area among this 640 acre dismantled military base near the Salton Sea.

Made famous by its appearance in the movie “Into the Wild,” Slab City wasn’t on our radar until our friend Skinny Chef asked if we wanted to meet her there. Then coincidentally, I found this blog entry, by a young RVing couple we met back in South Carolina;

“The movie depicts Slab City as this really cool RV hippie community, where people of all ages hang out – peace, love, happiness, rock and roll, and all that. Well yesterday, we drove two hours to Slab City and nothing could be further from the truth.

Slab City is an RV slum, pure and simple. It’s actually really sad – people living in tents and abandon vehicles. There were even remnants of burned down RVs strewn all over the place. It’s amazing to think that people actually live this way in the US – and it’s only 80 miles from swanky Palm Springs.”

This intrigued me. Liz is a nice person and I like her a lot, but the two of us are quite different. I’m crunchy granola and like to keep things simple, while she’s a high flyin’ New Yorker who’s into manicures, and the glamourous life. Once I saw what she thought of Slab City, I figured if she hated it, I’d probably love it.

I was right.

Slab City: The Last Free Place

Do come here with an open mind if you plan to visit. Many people we know would be completely offended by the post-apocalyptic look of the place.

To come here requires someone who is willing to look beyond the surface, to scratch a little deeper at a situation to learn the real story.

What Slab City Is:

• Free camping. It’s a spot of abandoned, state-owned land where hundreds of travelers from all over the world come to stay for free, some permanently, others just to ride out winter. Call us squatters, if you will, since nobody has “official” permission to be here.
• Serious Boondocking. There are no facilities whatsoever: no electricity, water, or trash. Nothing. The closest dump station is 8 miles away.
• Kinda trashy, in places. Yes, there is some garbage and abandoned RVs around. The state doesn’t care about this spot, and the closest city refuses to clean it up since residents don’t pay to be here. It’s up to campers to be responsible for taking trash to town, and like any neighborhood, some people are better about this than others.
• Very Social. There is much to do and see here, including social clubs, a couple of concert stages, a library, an 18 hole golf course, a church, hot springs, and more. We’ve been to two potlucks, and seem to be doing something every night of the week. We’ve never been so active in one location before.

What Slab City Isn’t:

• Lawless. Contrary to how the media portrays it, I don’t feel in any more in danger here than I do in most cities. Sure, there are some sketchy looking characters, but if you keep away from them, they’ll most likely keep away from you. The county sheriff makes regular runs through here, and Border Patrol is constantly driving through.
• Depressing. There is more creativity here than any tidy suburban neighborhood I’ve been to. Residents have contributed many hours of labor to build free amenities like the golf course (with free equipment!), concert stages, church, or the public shower down near the springs. I’m impressed that people would do so much with so little, in such an unforgiving desert environment. Now if they could only get it together to do something about the trash . . .
• Mainstream. It’s as if someone took a sampling of every kind of ethnicity, personality type and mental disorder, and shipped them here. There are international travelers, old folks, musicians, fulltime Rvers, wandering travelers and offroad enthusiasts, all camped out in the same area as drifters, people struggling with addictions, mental illness and/or homelessness. Everyone seems to get along, following a live and let live attitude.

The desert scenery outside Slab City is beautiful, surrounded by a rugged mountain range. On most days, you can look east to the Chocolate Mountains, about 2 miles away, and watch the US Navy spend your tax dollars by practicing bombing runs and playing war games in the air. We took two hour bike rides without seeing another soul.

The other day, Jim went to see Solar Mike, about our solar system. Mike asked Jim “How long are you staying?” Jim replied with “oh, a week or two.” Mike looked at Jim with a knowing look and chuckled… “Yeah, right.”

I think he could tell just by looking at us. The Slab City lifestyle is agreeing with us, and we’re going to find it hard to break camp this week.

Queen of the Road – by Doreen Orion

The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own

There are two kinds of fulltime RVer couples on the road. There are couples where both partners really love the lifestyle, and can’t think of living any other way. Then, there are couples where one partner loves it, and the other was dragged on the bus kicking and screaming. Some couples’ personalities fit perfectly into fulltime RVing, while others try it, then put their RV on the market before summer’s end.

If you happen to be the reluctant RVer, Doreen Orion’s book – Queen of the Road – is perfect for you.

“Barebones Camping”? In a Prevost?

Doreen’s book is a humorous, insightful look at how she, the reluctant fulltime RVing partner, handled living on the road for a year with her mellow, outdoorsy husband Tim, two cats, and a poodle in a 340 square foot custom Prevost bus. She writes:

“Bus? Well..I tried to convince myself (really I did) that my living on one was a natural fit. Although I love the idea of travel, in practice I don’t particularly like doing it; the closets are never big enough and there’s always the risk of ending up on a hotel’s first floor, which smacks way too much of camping for me. I loathe camping. In fact, my idea of “roughing it” is to stay at the Holiday Inn.”

For anyone who’s reluctant to go fulltiming, Doreen has some advice for you. In an email interview, she says:

“If I can do it, anyone can. I was a VERY reluctant road trip partner. In fact, when Tim first came home and announced he wanted to “chuck it all” and travel the country in a converted bus for a year, I gave this profound and potentially life-altering decision all the the thoughtful consideration it deserved.

‘Why can’t you be like a normal husband in a midlife crisis and have an affair or buy a Corvette?’ I demanded.”

Spoiled and Well Taken Care of

It’s hard to believe that someone like Doreen would even take a trip like this. The self-proclaimed spoiled Jewish “Princess from the Island of Long,” writes about her favorite hobbies; lounging at home in designer track suits, building up her shoe collection, and avoiding any kind of housework:

“I have always been smug in my position as role model for my friends. They marvel at how I get Tim to do:

1) all the cleaning (by existing the house in horribly wrinkled clothes)

2) all the laundry (by washing everything together, so his favorite baseball shirt turned pink);

3) all the dishes (by being incapable of stacking the dishwasher in an energy-efficient manner).”

Despite her aversion to leaving, a little voice in her head knew her husband was right about why they should go on the road; they weren’t getting any younger, and as two DINKs with established careers, nothing was holding them back from making a change like this. She agrees to go, but her social circle of like-minded women wasn’t exactly encouraging:

“Once we announced we were doing the “bus thing,” as we came to call it, my friends started viewing me with disgust. They insisted I’d let them down. As their husbands eyed mine with envy and tried to get him to divulge his secret recipe for spousal capitulation, the wives shunned me as if the decision to chuck everything and live in a glorified tin can was a symptom of some contagious insanity.”

“What Am I Afraid Of?”
As a professional psychiatrist, Doreen writes a book that is less a book about fulltime Rving, and more a memoir about adapting to life on the road. While her narrative covers their entire route, Queen Doreen makes reading about it more fun than the usual travelogue.

She paints vivid, funny pictures of her husband’s calm, rational demeanor, and writes humorous analyses of her own thoughts and fears about being on the road … especially as the fretful passenger during their first days on the bus:

“On the slightest downhill, I’d try to mind-meld with Tim, to get him to put on the engine brake, my foot stomping on air. At every turn, I’d clutch the seat, anticipating a rollover. At every dip in the road, I’d hold my breath, listening for the sound of bending steel, a portend of our imminent, albeit mercifully swift, midsectioning.”

What was I afraid of? I kept asking myself. The answer was always the same: careening off the road amidst the sound of our belongings crashing.”

Doreen gradually comes to grips with her fears, and her attitudes about “the bus thing” start changing too. Despite all of the things she felt she gave up to do this trip, sees unexpected positive changes in her life, and her relationship with Tim:

“After the sun set, we’d cook . . . er, thaw dinner. Then sit inside our home and talk. It didn’t matter what we talked about . . . feeling close and laughing with one another. Spending time this way, without any of the distractions I used to consider essential (TV, going out to fancy restaurants, wearing high-end clothes) made me start questioning just how essential they were.”

As their year goes on, Doreen isn’t the only one who’s benefiting from fulltiming. Her cats, Morty and Shula, used to fight constantly, but on the road, they called a truce and learned to coexist. And Miles the poodle, in true dog fashion, embraces the quality time while showing his humans what’s really important in life. In our interview, Doreen said:

“I joke that everyone on the bus changed – except Miles, our standard poodle, since of course, he was perfect to begin with. Our cats, Morty and Shula, hated each other and fought every day of their lives prior to our trip. But, on the bus, living in 340 square feet, they seem to have adopted a “do or die” attitude, and while there were certainly never any adorable cat snuggle moments, they did manage to come to a sort of truce. Really, if they could get along, anyone can.

As for Miles, it just became even more apparent on the road that he was all about simple pleasures: It was enough in life to have a bowl of food and a small, quiet place to himself, surrounded by people who loved him. Why ask for anything more?”

Do It Now
Most younger fulltimers are on the road because they understand why it’s so important to go on adventures like this while they are younger and more able to do so. Many have watched too many older friends fall into the trap of working for retirement, instead of living life in the now. Doreen’s husband, Tim, understood this, but it took her a few months on the road to concur.

“I didn’t want to do the trip because my life was comfortable, yet on the road, I learned that “comfort” isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be.

When we’re younger and just starting out, we’re constantly stimulated and challenged, whether by school or a new career. Then, at some point, after we’re settled into our lives and careers and we’re where we want to be, we have a chance to breathe, and many of us wonder, “Is this all there is? Is this what I worked so hard for?

She added, “Tim and I were certainly guilty of . . . spending more time supporting a lifestyle than with each other.

All the adventures on the road (and misadventures – fire, armed robbery and finding ourselves in a nudist RV park to name a few), put a certain spark back in my life I didn’t even realize was missing.”

For the reluctant road trippers out there, Doreen says “Go for it! Don’t wait: There is never a “good” time to do it. Just do it, keep an open mind and heart (yes, I know I’m one to talk), and see what happens.”

Funny, and Practical Too!
Queen of the Road is always funny, insightful, and gives some good information about great places to see around North America. Plus, Doreen’s inventive martini recipes at the beginning of every chapter are sure to get you in the mood to sit in a comfy chair and keep on reading.

“Every chapter of the book starts with a martini recipe which commemorates whatever disaster we had on the road,” she says. “One of my favorites includes Midori, which is a very versatile – and tasty – liqueur:

Hurlatini

• 1 part rum
• 2 parts Midori
• 1 splash pineapple juice
• 1 splash sweet ‘n’ sour
• 1 white-knuckled squeeze of lime

Pound martini shaker against emergency exit until window breaks or ingredients sufficiently mixed for tasty self-medication.

For more cocktail recipes, listen to Doreen’s Podcast #6, on the podcast page of her website.

Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own
Other books by Doreen Orion

To read the entire first chapter of Queen of the Road, check out fabulous reviews the book has been getting, to see pictures and videos of the trip or to contact Doreen to call in to book clubs, visit her at QueenoftheRoadTheBook.com

The Possibilities are Endless
in Free Agent Nation

California has more “Free Agent” independent workers and micro-business owners than any other state in the nation, according to Dan Pink, author of the fascinating new book “Free Agent Nation.”

According to Pink, two out of three Californians don’t hold a traditional job with a single employer. Our state’s free agents are breaking new ground and achieving a new type of  “job security” through diversification, and investing their human capital in several clients or projects, rather than devoting it all to a single company and living in the shadow of their next pink slip.

The Redwood Technology Consortium is Humboldt’s best vehicle to further diversify a free agent’s opportunities. Once a month, we all pry our hands away from our keyboards, and head out to the Eureka RREDC office to exchange business advice, learn how to participate in promoting clean industry locally, and simply network with other free agents, micro-enterprise and larger business owners. Between us, we demonstrate the possibilities available to anyone wanting to make the free agent leap, with as little as a phone line, fax and FedEx.

Here’s a few world class projects we are implementing from our spare bedrooms, garages, and sometimes while camped out at the local coffee house:

Ennis Web Design, run by Sean Ennis, specializes in ADA compliant web design, foreign language translation and digitally mastered audio for websites. In addition, if your ISP goes belly-up and you’re suddenly found without a web presence, Sean will help you move your site to a new host: something your old ISP won’t do.

www.YourEka.org is a Eureka citizen’s website created by Carl Birks, a College of the Redwoods Multimedia Student. Eurekans are encouraged to express their perspectives on our urban environment when visiting the site. By using written, visual, musical and other creative expressions, YourEka promotes innovation in urban planning and architecture for a more people-friendly, ever-improving, more livable Eureka.

Planwest Partners, owned by George Williamson, AICP, is a planning and environmental consulting firm. Planwest offers land use, resource, community, and environmental planning; feasibility studies; and grant-writing services. George has over twenty years of experience in both public agency and private sector planning, primarily in the West.

Gold Dog Design, developer of the acclaimed RTC website, specializes in the development and implementation of web-based intranets and extranets for the virtual office. Specializing in ColdFusion programming, Carter Fleming offers database integration and B2B solutions with integrated portal capabilities.

Peggy Martinez, an Assistive Technology Consultant and Trainer specializing in equipment for people with impaired sight. Peggy arranges everything from system installations with speech & Braille output, to awareness training, to accessible computer lab coordination for conventions and conferences.

Kevin Savetz is a freelance computer and technology writer specializing in the Internet. Kevin is a regular contributor to Computer Shopper, MacAddict, Byte.com’s WebTools, Sesame Street Parents, AuctionWatch.com, Access Magazine, and other publications.

www.BuyVeteran.com, is a nationwide directory of veteran owned businesses. Webmaster Doug Sapp is in the process of compiling information from around the country on veteran businesses in a variety of industry sectors, such as servicing, manufacturing, and construction.

Tina Nerat, a newly transplanted San Diegan, runs NERATech from her office in Eureka, which specializes in building systems infrastructure, such as networking, help desk, system administration, desktop support and LAN/WAN configurations. In addition, Tina works with businesses to assess their use of technology within their organization. Mike Nerat, her husband, is a prototype machinist and CNC programmer, and is currently seeking a high-end machine shop with appropriate tools and CAD/CAM software, to partner on various projects.

This is just a sampling of the creative endeavors underway in our region’s stealth tech industry, and proof that our livelihoods don’t have to be at the mercy of industry-wide economic downturns and structural reorganizations of large employers.

To get inspired or find out what others are doing to live the free agent lifestyle, join us at the next RTC meeting on Wednesday, July 11.

Rene Agredano sits on the RTC board of directors (www.redwoodtech.org) and is a principal of Agreda Communications, a full-service marketing communications firm.

Prospering on Internet Time

Our company often completes major design projects with companies from Hong Kong to Aruba to San Jose, without ever meeting the clients, or even talking on the phone. To some, this is impossible to imagine. But to us, it’s a given. While it’s great to relax “on Humboldt Time,” we find that it’s most beneficial and cost-effective to do business on Internet Time.

Nobody likes to waste time when their businesses’ profitability is on the line. Yet, so often, we encounter professionals ranging from marketing directors of multi-national corporations to small business owners who can’t imagine working on a project without meeting many times to discuss minor details. And, while face time is vital for pitching to qualified sales prospects; for day-to-day projects, meetings can suck so much work time that any profitability is entirely lost.

The next time someone proposes a meeting to you, think about the time spent driving to and from a meeting, the resources spent making copies, typing agendas, and taking notes. Then analyze what your time is worth before you commit to a meeting. Multiply that by the number of people involved in your project, and the results are astounding.

With just a small learning curve and a new way of approaching the decision-making process, most projects can be successfully completed without ever having to meet face-to-face. Before agreeing to a meeting, the obvious question to ask is: Why? If you must meet, then ask: What’s the quickest and cheapest way to meet? Any meeting conducted via the Internet, software, or a specific device, is certain to be the least expensive and most timely way to meet.

Portable Document Format (PDF) files: Cross-platform documents can be created thanks to Adobe Acrobat, and emailed to anyone. From hundred-page reports, to packaging comps, to engineering drafts, these PDFs can be emailed to colleagues for review, and all they have to do is download the free Acrobat reader to view and print it. If someone wants a hard copy, they can kill some trees and print it out themselves. If they have tons of changes, they can do that within Acrobat, and email you back embedded comments instead of calling you and spending an hour on the phone, or wasting paper, ink, and fax toner. A PDF can be circulated to busy company staff around the world for comments and be back to you within hours for corrections, finalization and distribution. PDFs also serve as valuable visual aides when discussed over the phone during a conference call — another cheap, effective way to hold meetings with anyone, anywhere.

Web Conferencing: There are numerous Internet-Based meeting centers where you can host a “cyber conference” with nothing more than a web connection and some cheap software. You can also integrate your PowerPoint presentation, PDF, streaming audio and video, and live demonstrations of your product. WebEx.com, PlaceWare.com, and Evoke.com all offer relatively inexpensive web-conferencing services like this. They also enable you to instantly share work you have created in a certain software program which your clients may not have on their computer.
Email: Practically anything can be sent over email for review. And, corresponding back and forth via email – when messages are checked and replies sent diligently – can save time by allowing colleagues to “meet” on their own time. It also leaves an invaluable “paper” trail.

Online Collaboration: Utilizing an IntraNet or ExtraNet to facilitate online project collaboration with document sharing, and real-time chat/conferencing is an ever increasing way that smart businesses “meet”. Existing companies such as Visto.com offer such services. Even AOL and Yahoo offer similar capabilities. Or you could implement such Web infrastructure for your organization. Better yet, you can join a group like the Redwood Technology Consortium, which offers these benefits to members for free at www.redwoodtech.org.

Rene Agredano is co-founder of Agreda Communications, a global full-service marketing communications, print and publishing provider. She is also Treasurer of the Redwood Technology Consortium.